European Economic and Social Committee Employers Group

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IS NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME We need triple-win solutions © shutterstock

• Sustainability is an obvious part of today’s How do enterprises see sustainability in practice? businesses, and employers want to contribute • Sustainability is part of the strategies and everyday processes proactively to sustainable development of today’s businesses • Companies apply ‘new economic models’ - such as the • Sustainability is an approach that integrates the circular economy – with the aim of simultaneously generating “three pillars” of development: economic, social economic, social and environmental benefits and environmental • Many companies see sustainability as a business opportunity, through differentiation of products and services or by • Win-win-win measures should be sought rather providing solutions to sustainability challenges than merely trade-offs between the pillars • Sustainability is also seen as part of risk management, including reputation • A sound and solid economy is the necessary • Sustainability is increasingly driven by market forces (investors, enabler of sustainable development, and financers, customers) enterprises play a crucial role as generators of • Sustainability implies that companies need to be competitive this development and profitable

• The EU should pay due attention to the economic • To ensure social and environmental sustainability, companies interact actively with their stakeholders (shareholders, foundations for sustainability and provide a customers, employees, local communities) and manage their favourable business environment to meet the climate and environmental impacts challenges and seize the opportunities • Companies also report and communicate increasingly on non- financial aspects Economic foundations for sustainable development must be strengthened The EU must ensure the necessary economic foundations for sustainable development. To help enterprises play their crucial role as generators of sustainable development, policy-makers must provide a favourable business environment. Instead of trade-offs, economic, social and environmental benefits should be sought simultaneously. Sustainable development is a highly comprehensive concept: intergenerational, global and with all-encompassing content. According to the most quoted definition (Brundtland Commission 1987) “sustainable development is development that meets the © shutterstock needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

• Enterprises develop and apply practices and models for the Implementation of Sustainable sustainable use of natural resources Development Goals – TOP 10 performers • Enterprises provide and introduce climate and environmental 1. Sweden - 85.0 technologies and other solutions 2. Denmark- 84.6 3. Finland - 83.0 The EU should thus pay due attention to the economic foundations 4. Germany - 82.3 for sustainability. A vital question is: How can we enhance an 5. France - 81.2 enabling and encouraging business environment (for industry, 6. Norway - 81.2 services and agriculture) to meet the challenges and seize the 7. Switzerland - 80.1 opportunities of sustainable development? 8. Slovenia - 80.0 The answer: We need a business environment that strengthens 9. Austria - 80.0 the competitiveness of European enterprises, encourages 10. Iceland - 79.7 entrepreneurship and provides favourable conditions for Source: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network. innovating, investing, operating and trading. SDG Index and Dashboards Report 2018. Sustainable development must be seen in the global context, as many challenges are global in nature. Sustainability is also a matter Sustainability is an inevitable approach for the future, an obvious for all actors in society, and much depends on the choices of part of doing business and a mindset that has to be considered in consumers and citizens. Step-by-step and “no regret” approaches everything. Sustainable development is based on three “pillars”: are needed for long-term challenges, as there are plenty of economic, social and environmental. The three dimensions are uncertainties and, for example, new technologies will enable new interlinked and inseparable. kinds of solutions. Sustainable development is not a zero-sum game but brings about The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN Agenda multiple wins if the cards are played in the right way. Accordingly, 2030 are a tool to concretise sustainable development, and they are win-win-win solutions should be striven for, rather than merely related to certain economic, social and environmental challenges trade-offs between the pillars. This means looking for policies and being faced globally. Several SDGs enhance sustainable economic measures that strengthen the economy and generate jobs and growth and its prerequisites, such as those relating to industry, well-being, while helping decrease climate and environmental agriculture, SMEs, infrastructure, trade, investment and finance. impacts simultaneously. A sound and solid economy is the necessary enabler of sustainability, TO BE AVOIDED: and enterprises play a crucial role in helping decrease economic insecurity and in generating overall sustainable development: Sustainable development must not be undermined by: • Employers create jobs and prosperity and thus lay the foundations • playing down the positive role of enterprises in generating for social development economic, social and environmental benefits, • holding up voluntary and market-based progress with discouraging • Enterprises provide goods and services that respond to citizens’ restrictions and requirements. everyday needs

© European Union, 2019 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Print: Online: QE-04-19-021-EN-C QE-04-19-021-EN-N EESC-2019-1-EN For any use or reproduction of the photos / illustrations, ISBN 978-92-830-4323-2 ISBN 978-92-830-4322-5 permission must be sought directly from the copyright doi:10.2864/481634 doi:10.2864/829657 holder(s).